Bench removal sparks demonstration in Northampton

Demonstrators protested the removal of benches in Northampton, Saturday. The benches were removed after residents complained that they were being monopolized by the homeless.Dave Canton

NORTHAMPTON — It was less a sit in and more a stand under your umbrella protest, as a social media organized group of activists demonstrated against the removal of public benches from the busy Main Street shopping corridor Saturday morning. The call for action was dampened by cold, wind-driven rain, however.

Nearly 40 protesters set up their own "benches," setting out patio chairs for anyone to sit on, at two of the bare concrete pads that once served as bases for the city's metal benches.

Benjamin F.C.Taylor, one of the organizers, said the decision to take six of the city's 16 public benches out of the busiest pedestrian area of the city amounted to classism.
"I am upset that they made this decision the way they did," he said. "They are hiding the homeless, the panhandlers, the indigent. This is not a mall. This is a town."

Taylor said downtown businesses are "scapegoating" the poor for declining sales and the removal of the benches is a self-defeating move.

"That misses the point they are trying to make. For 80 percent of us the recession is still going on," he said. "We are all feeling stagnant wages. They can't blame the panhandlers and the poor."

Bet Power set his lawn chair and sign in the most prominent place he could find.
"I'm here to fight classism," he said. "The begging poor need places to sit as well as any other. When they took out the benches they hurt all the people of Northampton. They leave no place for anyone to sit and enjoy the city."

Some 1,100 people signed on to a Facebook page calling for the demonstration.
"Enough is enough!" the page read. "It's time to SIT DOWN! No Classist War on the Poor in Noho!"

Employees of the city's Business Improvement District unbolted the benches on May 15 and put them into storage. BID Director Daniel Yacuzzo said that while the benches were installed for the comfort of all downtown pedestrians, they had become "a campground for the very few."

Mayor David Narkewicz said he approved the removal after he received numerous complaints about the homeless and panhandlers monopolizing the benches.
"It is an issue of people using them to store their stuff," he said. "They are not available to the public."

But not all downtown business people or city officials are behind the move to remove the benches. Peter Vogel, owner of Faces, a longtime Main Street mainstay, was concerned that one branch of the demonstration set up directly in front of his store, and that might send the wrong message about the store.

"Faces does not support the removal of the benches," Vogel said.

City Council President William Dwight said he was troubled by the mayor's order.
"I am disappointed by the message it transmits," he said. "While I am sympathetic, I am disturbed by the tone. It is being read it as some enjoying privilege and some not. I understand the pressures on the downtown businesses, I still feel the removal of the benches was misguided."

Dwight said the City Council is drafting an ordinance to restore the benches.